That’s according to the society’s results for 2020 which revealed a profit before tax of £161.3 million which is just below the £167.2 million in 2019. Its core operating profit was also down on the £184.6million of 2019 at £170.5 million.

But on the mortgage side of its operation, of the 72,127 mortgages Yorkshire provided during 2020, a record 10,854 went to first-time buyers. This compares to 7,789 in 2019.

The building society said mortgage balances increased by £800 million to £38.8 billion compared to £38.0 billion on 31 December 2019.

During 2020 Yorkshire also provided 39,331 mortgage payment deferrals to help those suffering an income shortfall as a result of the pandemic.

The vast majority of those who received a mortgage payment deferral have now resumed their normal repayments, it said.

Mike Regnier, chief executive of Yorkshire Building Society, said the ‘strong set of results’ had been delivered despite the economic challenges and uncertainties of 2020.

“These results would not have been possible without the hard work, dedication and resilience of our colleagues,” he said.

“In what has been an incredibly worrying and difficult year for everyone, both personally and professionally, they have supported our customers and each other. I’m incredibly grateful to each and every one of them.”

Savings

Yorkshire said it supported savers with interest rates which beat the market average by 0.17%, equating to £51 million in additional interest.

The Society recently announced it was increasing savings rates, proving an additional £20 million in interest to savers.

Saving balances increased by £2.7 billion to £33.4 billion which compared to £30.7 billion at the end of 2019